Owensboro

A program at the Daviess County Public Library will allow residents to check out a different kind of book.

Saturday’s Human Library will feature individuals with unique perspectives who can be checked out by those interested in having a conversation.

Some of the individuals who have volunteered for the program include two transgender individuals, a Muslim woman, a vegan, an atheist, a bisexual, a female Unitarian Universalist minister, and Burmese refugees.

Lisa Maiden, with the Daviess County Public Library, says the Human Library is a way to learn about people in the community you might not normally meet.

"Being different can sometimes be scary to other people, because if you don't know about it, and the only information you get is from the news, a lot of that information tends to be sensationalized for the 'wow' factor."

Kentucky State Police say debris spotted from a helicopter is from a plane that's been missing in western Kentucky since Monday and a body has been recovered from the plane.

Police said in a news release Wednesday night that officials have not been able to positively confirm the body is the 70-year-old missing pilot, Robert C. Dalzell Jr., but have notified the family. An autopsy was scheduled.

A news release from police said the site is in thick woods in the Fordsville community of Hancock County. The Federal Aviation Administration will be at the scene Thursday to investigate.

Police said earlier that Dalzell left the Owensboro Regional Airport on Monday morning and landed at Falls of Rough in Grayson County about 35 minutes later. The statement says he departed later from the Falls of Rough, but never returned to the Owensboro airport.

Officials say a woman whose body was found in the Ohio River a day after two other bodies were recovered has been identified.

Kentucky State Police Trooper Corey King said in an email Friday that the woman was 51-year-old Darcy L. Hess of Cannelton, Indiana. He said the case is still being investigated but that detectives don't suspect foul play and believe the death is unrelated to the other two.

Hess' body was found Thursday outside the city limits of Owensboro.

Daviess County Sheriff's Department officials told media outlets earlier that one of the bodies found Wednesday had been shot in the back of the head and had ligature marks around the neck.

The bodies found Wednesday were badly decomposed. Neither has been identified.

The annual event is being held tomorrow and Saturday along the city’s riverfront area. Festival co-chair Sharon NeSmith says about 30,000 people showed up last year.

NeSmith, who has lived in Owensboro since they age of four, says she’s been attending the festival since it began in 1979.

She thinks the festival has managed to stay true to its roots.

“I like the way it was described in the first brochure that ever came out about the festival—that it was taking the atmosphere of a country church picnic to the downtown urban area. And that basically really describes what we do,” NeSmith said.

An Owensboro shelter for victims of domestic violence could lose as much as a half-million dollars in federal funding later this year. The executive director of “Oasis” blames a change in philosophy at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jill Faulkner told the Owensboro Messenger – Inquirer HUD’s “Continuum Care” program is focusing now more on finding permanent housing for the homeless and moving away from funding transitional housing facilities like “Oasis”.

The federal grant makes up a third of the facility’s annual budget. They’ve received the money for more than 20 years.

Funding runs through the end of November and Faulkner says they’ll spend that time looking for other funding sources and maybe appeal the decision. Whatever happens, she says, “Oasis” will not close its doors.

Last year "Oasis" served 125 women, three men and 138 children in the shelter and more than 1,000 through outreach.

A new report shows the number of people working—and looking for work—in Daviess County dropped by over 1,319 people between 2014 and 2015.

The Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet says there were 807 fewer people with jobs in Daviess County last year.

However, the county also saw 512 fewer unemployed people.

The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reports some local officials are worried about the declining number of people in the workforce. Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation President Madison Silvert told the paper that the area has done a good job of attracting retirees.

He says that’s one reason why Daviess County’s population has increased at the same time the number of workers has decreased.

Silvert says the size and quality of a community’s workforce is the chief concern of companiesthat are considering expansion.

The just-concluded legislative session contains a major victory for Daviess County.

The final budget agreement includes funding to create a Family Court. District and circuit judges currently handle family issues.

John Minton, Jr. has been advocating for the judgeship since becoming Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2008. He says the goal is to keep family cases before the same judge.

"It's possible under the system without Family Court for a family to have issues in different places before different judges with different outcomes, so Family Court allows us to process all the issues around families in one place.

Family judges preside over cases such as divorce, child custody, adoptions, and domestic violence. Daviess County is the largest county in the state without a Family Court judge.

Once the law becomes effective in mid-July, Governor Bevin will appoint someone to serve as Daviess County Family Court Judge until the position is up for election in November.

The Messenger-Inquirer reports in the past two years alone, hotel revenues jumped 36 percent up to nearly 22-million dollars, and this year is already 13 percent ahead of 2015.

The upsurge really took off in 2014 with the openings of both the Owensboro Convention Center and the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Downtown Owensboro/Waterfront. Plus, a third 90 room downtown hotel is planned near the convention center with a possible opening in 2018.

Owensboro is stepping up its mission to become the nation’s bluegrass music capital. Construction of a new downtown performance center and museum is set to start this spring to go along with the city’s thriving local music scene.

Also, a program in local schools is looking to create new fans for bluegrass long into the future.

At Sutton Elementary in Owensboro, 400 students recently sat cross-legged on the cafeteria floor. They clapped along to a bluegrass band called the Rigs. The band performed as a part of a program created by the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro.

It’s called Bluegrass in the Schools, and it’s been bringing the music to students since 2003.

Tom Stites, the fine arts coordinator for Owensboro Public Schools, said the goal of Bluegrass in the Schools is to encourage a new generation of bluegrass fans and musicians and performances like this make the most of a unique Kentucky heritage. “It’s a chance for our children to connect with their culture, because the bluegrass roots run so very deep here," he said. "And it’s not part of what our children experience every single day in their lives. I think it’s important that they continue to be connected with their background and where bluegrass came from.”

A hospital in Daviess County is using new technology to connect parents with their babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Owensboro Health Regional Hospital has installed a camera system that allows parents to view images of their child on a secure, web-based video stream. The Owensboro Health Foundation funded $50,700 for equipment, installation, training, and a one-year remove service contract to help get the system up and running.

Owensboro Health’s NICU medical director, Dr. Bridget Burshears, said the new camera system allows parents with a child in the NICU to see images of their baby at any time.

"Any parent who has signed up for the program can log on to the internet website, and log in with a specific log-in name and password for that specific baby, and be able to see that infant in their isolator crib, and see what they are doing at any given time,” Dr. Burshears said.

Another of Kentucky’s coal-fired power units will be shut down in the next few years, further reducing the state’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Owensboro Municipal Utilities announced last week that it plans to shut down Unit 1 of the Elmer Smith Power Plant sometime between 2019 and 2021.

The Elmer Smith plant has two coal-fired units; Unit 2, the larger of the two, will continue to operate for the foreseeable future.

The plant is the latest of the state’s coal-fired power plants to be shut down. As the state’s coal fleet ages — more than half of the coal plants operating in 2011 were built before 1970 — utilities are being forced to decide whether it will save money to update the plants or shut them down. In many cases, the decision is influenced by stricter environmental regulations and the low cost of other fuels, like natural gas.

Elmer Smith Unit 1 produced more than a million tons of carbon dioxide in 2014. Kentucky is facing steep carbon dioxide emissions cuts under the federal Clean Power Plan, and the unit’s retirement will get Kentucky’s projected emissions a little bit closer to compliance with the federal standard.

An estimated 80,000 Kentuckians are serving as caregivers to family members suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia.

The Greater Kentucky-Southern Indiana chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association wants more of those caregivers to be better informed about resources available to them.

Community Outreach Coordinator Helene French says one of the most important lessons she tries to get across to caregivers is that they can’t do it alone.

“You need to build a team, and think about what that team is going to look like--of family and friends, neighbors, people in your community, your physician, and nurses, and community resources.”

French says caregivers should look into government and private programs that provide help with respite care for those with dementia. Some of the governmental services available are income-based, while others aren’t.